Pentecost Monday: Gift of Wisdom

Window of the Holy Spirit, part of the Altar of the Chair, by Gianlorenzo Bernini


Traditionally, the great feast of Pentecost, owing to its supreme importance and solemnity, was observed as an octave.  Today, then, is traditionally Pentecost Monday.  Why the octave of Pentecost Octave was suppressed in the revised Latin calendar is not clear to me, nor is it the focus of this post.

Having noted the general definition of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit yesterday, it seems opportune to examine each of them, and, especially, note their relationship to the Beatitudes, as understood by the Doctors of the Church.  We will then begin with that first mentioned in Isaiah 11, and which is the most sublime: the Gift of Wisdom.

The Catechism, referring to Isaiah, lists the Gifts thus: "The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord." (CCC1831)

St. Thomas Aquinas notes that wisdom is among four of the gifts that belong especially to reason, rather than to the will: "For, seeing that of the seven gifts, four belong to the reason, viz. wisdom, knowledge, understanding and counsel." (STh, I-II, q. 68, a. 1)

Of the Gift of Wisdom, the first listed, the Angelic Doctor says, "it belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue to pronounce right judgment about Divine things after reason has made its inquiry, but it belongs to wisdom as a gift of the Holy Ghost to judge aright about them on account of connaturality with them." (STh, II-II, q. 45, a. 2)  Further, he mentions of this gift in his introduction to the gifts that, "In order to judge aright, the speculative reason is perfected by 'wisdom.'" (STh, I-II, q. 68, a. 4)

John of St. Thomas adds that, "the gift of wisdom does not judge from any knowledge derived from study and reasoning about causes or even by a light which manifests them in themselves. It judges from a connaturality and union with the supreme cause which is possessed as it were through experience." (Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Ch. IV, 4.)

St. Thomas Aquinas associates the Gift of Wisdom with the theological virtue of Charity, for as John of St. Thomas summarizes in his Introduction to the Summa Theologiae, "This is essentially in intellect, because it implies judgment concerning divine things through the highest cause, not only as involving assent to believed things (which pertains to faith), but a discretionary judgment through a kind of experience of the divine (which does not pertain to faith). It has its root and foundation in the will and charity, because to judge through the highest causes takes place in two ways. In one way from principles illumined and acquired by intellect, and this is the mode of human wisdom, which is not a gift. In another way by union and connaturality with the highest cause itself, God, as it were by taste and savor, as it is said in Psalm 33:9, 'Taste and see,' where sight arises from taste and savor." (Commenting on STh, II-II, q. 45 of Aquinas)

It is obvious, then, that to have such a connatural knowledge of God through the Gift of Wisdom, union with God is essential, for, "the wisdom of which we are speaking presupposes charity. Now charity is incompatible with mortal sin, as shown above. Therefore it follows that the wisdom of which we are speaking cannot be together with mortal sin." (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh, II-II, q. 45, a. 4)

Interestingly, St. Augustine of Hippo, in his work, On the Sermon on the Mount, associates the Gift of Wisdom with one of the Beatitudes: "Wisdom corresponds to the peacemakers, in whom all things are now brought into order, and no passion is in a state of rebellion against reason, but all things together obey the spirit of man, while he himself also obeys God: and of them it is here said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'" (Book I, chapter 4, 11)

St. Thomas explains, "Now a peacemaker is one who makes peace, either in himself, or in others: and in both cases this is the result of setting in due order those things in which peace is established, for "peace is the tranquillity of order," according to Augustine (De Civ. Dei xix, 13). Now it belongs to wisdom to set things in order, as the Philosopher declares (Metaph. i, 2), wherefore peaceableness is fittingly ascribed to wisdom." (STh, II-II, q. 45, a. 6)

For his part, John of St. Thomas associates both the sixth and this seventh beatitude to the life of contemplation, a fitting place for wisdom: "The sixth and seventh beatitudes are ordered to the attainment of beatitude through the contemplative life. The sixth beatitude is the cleansing of the heart through purity. Without it contemplation is impossible. 'Blessed are the pure of heart.' The peace which surpasses all sense and inebriates the spirit is a work of justice -- 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'" (Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Ch. IX, 5)

On this Pentecost Monday, let us pray for the Gift of Wisdom, and, if necessary, get ourselves back in the state of grace, so that we might make peace, starting with ourselves!

Veni, Sancte Spiritus!  Live well!